The Last Titan
by JeagerLicious
Summary: Eren is no hero. Deeply traumatized after returning to his village to find it destroyed by Titans, he is taken in by a traveling circus, where he discovers a girl who is treated like a monster. Her crippled legs and smokey eyes draw Eren in, and he rescues her from that life. Together they must find and destroy the last Titan that is threatening Humanity.


**The Last Titan**

**Takes place 60 years after the Titans were declared extinct. Eren and the others were never soldiers, and are just kids. Most people still live inside the walls, due to the fact that they were too used to it and didn't want to pack up and move outside. However there is towns outside the walls, though only a few live there. The gates are always opened as there is no threat. **

* * *

Fear is something I know very well. When I was a child i was afraid of nightmares and the dark, and more lately of death and going to hell. But none of these things could compare to the fear I felt that day when I stood on the shore of Sina Cove, hardly able to breathe over the stench of blood and death, and certain that on this day, I would lose my life. And not only mine, but the life of the girl, Mikasa.

If she knew any fear that awful day, she didn't show it. She gazed up at the cliffs for a long time, where a corpse hung partly over the edge. Another corpse lay on the beach not far from us. He was crushed beyond recognition, but the remains of his hand still held a sword.

"We won't fail." Mikasa said, walking slowly over to me, limping badly on the hot sand. Her bandaged legs were crusted with sea water, and velvety white sand lay across her smooth lips and milky white skin. She was all strange – average height, but impossibly delicate considering the task ahead of her.

"We won't fail." She said again, taking my arm and gently turning me away so I couldn't see the dead soldiers. She didn't speak again for a while, but only looked up again at the cliff; her large eyes were as black as night and held secrets too deep for me to read. So still she stood, so firm, so steady that – for that moment at least – I believed what she had said.

I couldn't bear to look up at the cliff, couldn't bear to look anywhere. For strength I gazed at Mikasa's face, and saw it still serene, calm and unaffected by what she was seeing.

* * *

My name is Eren Jaeger, son of Grisha Jaeger, who was a doctor in the village of Shiganshina. My adventure began on a night soon after summer had started. It was a night I remember well, for it was the last with my family.

I had been thinking on the unfairness of fate, and how I was destined to be forever alone, having been the only boy in the village who was still single at the age of seventeen. Destined to spend the rest of my days following in my father's footsteps as a doctor, and minding my four younger sisters.

That evening I was sitting by the fire, minding the pot of soup boiling away with its leg of salted bacon, while trying to finish the new boots I was making for myself. They were almost finished, I'd made the leather pieces, and I had just to sew them together. My eldest sister, Eliza, hovered close, whining. The second eldest, Libby, was playing on the blankets that were spread on the floor. The twins, barley three years old, were asleep. The evening would've been peaceful, if not for Eliza.

"You should have given it to me." She said.

"Given you what?" I asked.

"Your old bow," she said, bumping my arm so the needle missed and hit my thumb instead.

I swore, but not loud enough that my mother heard. "If you don't leave me alone," I warned. "I'll give you that bow, and an arrow too, stuck up your ass where you don't want it."

"You can't give me your bow," she said, pouting. "You threw it in the river. I saw you. Why?"

"Because it was a useless bow, it never would shoot straight."

"I doubt it was the bow, Eren," said my mother, laughing at me over the carrots she was preparing. "You'll regret throwing it away. You should have sold it."

That had crossed my mind, after it had sunk below the water.

"I have enough money for a new bow anyway," I said. "I'm going into Wall Maria's centre town tomorrow. Father said there's a man there who makes really good bows and arrows."

My mother gave me a sceptical look. "Who will look after the girls while you're gone? You know I'm too busy."

"Father said he will. I've already planned everything, mom. I leave at dawn, and I'll be back just as it starts getting dark."

Eliza tugged on my sleeve, big amber eyes pleading. "Take me with you!"

"Oh sure, I'll take you," I said. "I'll take you into Wall Rose, and leave you there."

"Where's that?" she asked, full of hope. She longed for adventure just as much as I did.

I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye. "It's where the soldiers of the Scouting Legion spend all their time, now that there are no Titans left to kill. Instead, they skin children alive and use their skins to make fine writing parchments."

"And how do you know such things, Eren?" asked my mother, shooting a sharp look in my direction.

I bent low over my new boots, and didn't say another word.

"They don't skin children," said Eliza, sulking. "Anyway, it's stupid to buy a new bow. You still won't be able to shoot straight."

"Oh really? Would you like me to show you how I shoot, then? You're soft enough to make a good target."

Lucky for her, our father arrived home just at that moment, and put two rabbits onto the table which he had caught for dinner.

He did not greet us, but only sat on the floor beside me to warm his hands by the fire. His hands were large, steady and strong like the rest of him. His face was ordinary, square-jawed with small eyes – unlike me. The only thing I had inherited from him was my hair and eye colour; light chocolate brown and bright turquoise. The rest of my features came from my mother, gaining her large eyes and delicately rounded face.

I wished I was like my father on the inside; calm and fearless, slow to anger and fair-minded. But because fate was not on my side, I had to be impatient, quick to lose my temper and extremely passionate about everything I believe in.

"I heard news in town," said my father. "Bad news."

Eliza was silent for once, and my mother's hands went very still over the vegetables. My father went on. "Thornhill was completely destroyed yesterday evening." His voice broke slightly, and I looked away from him. He continued, very quietly. "Everything was destroyed, animals, houses, the windmill, the church. No one survived. "

He looked down, swallowing. "Not many people believe that everyone was killed, because there weren't many bodies. But people are saying that they were …eaten."

The only sound in the room was the crackling of the fire. Thornhill was one of two towns built outside the walls. We waited for him to continue. My father sighed deeply and ran his hands through his hair. "Some say it could be the soldiers, but there were no hoof prints, and no soldiers have been seen for weeks. The bodies that were found showed no sign of having been killed by human weapons. They were just mangled and dis-membered."

My mother sat down suddenly upon a stool. Eliza and Libby went to her, but they didn't embrace her like I thought they would. They just stood by her, their faces the colour of bleached cloth. They started whimpering, which awoke the twins, and they started to howl that that was loud enough to wake the dead. I felt like crying myself, and I looked at my father, seeking strength from him. But he was staring at the fire, and he was shaking all over, and it was the first time that I saw him afraid. The fear spread through our house like smoke, thick and choking.

My father got up and went out, slamming the door behind him, making the flames leap and smoke and ashes swirl across the room.

My eyes watered from the smoke, and I wiped them on my sleeve. I tried not to look at my mother, but out of the corner of my eye I saw her head bent, her face streaked with tears.

The evening was ruined. I finished my boots but, though the turned out rather well, there was no satisfaction. Neither was there excitement in tomorrow's journey.

That night as I lay in bed, I was pretended to be asleep as my mother wondered around in the kitchen. I watched her, and I kept watching as my father arrived back home. I saw him take my mother in his arms, and whisper to her. They cried together, very quietly. Later they sat by the fire and gazed into the flames, not a word being said.

I dreamt of shadowy monsters devouring people alive, and of houses being crushed by massive bodies. But still I couldn't name the looming fear that plagued my mind.

* * *

**TO BE CONTINUED... Mikasa should arrive next chapter XD**

***UPDATE* i uploaded the wrong document before, WHOOOPSIE. I uploaded the version where i hadn't thought of names for everyone yet, but i changed it now. SORRY**

**~ JeagerLicious**


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